Brian Muehl
Brian Muehl (pronounced "meal") (b. 1950s), is a Muppeteer & writer who began his Muppet career in the later seasons of The Muppet Show. Trained as a mime, Muehl assisted the principal Muppeteers & he also performed some small fairly roles up till the show ended. He soon transitioned to Sesame Street in later years, where he took over the roles of Barkley & Telly Monster (Telly later performed by Martin P. Robinson), & he originated characters like the funny inventor, Dr. Nobel Prize, & in some of his very earliest appearances, Elmo, before Kevin Clash took the character over & made him famous (even though Clash took over that character after Richard Hunt, who took over the character from Muehl, quickly grew tired of it). His other fairly early character is Oscar the Grouch's equally rotten trashy Grouch girlfriend Grundgetta, whom he had voiced from 1982 to 1984, when Pam Arciero, a fellow Muppeteer completely took over for the role, performing her, for 29 years. Muehl also performed multiple roles on The Dark Crystal (& along with Steve Whitmire, was 1 of, apparently, only 2 main Muppets to both perform & voice a character). In 1984 Muehl left the Muppets for reasons he later articulated in a Random House bio: "The downside of long hours in film & TV studios is all the downtime. Besides growing restless, I had a wife & 2 young daughters I was seeing too little of. So I traded life in front of the camera for life behind it. I became a children's television writer. Changing his name to Meehl, to reflect the pronunciation, the Muppeteer began churning out scripts for Eureeka's Castle, PBS series Eyewitness, The Magic School Bus, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, & Codename: Kids Next Door. He did return to the sporadically in the 1990s, notably as a regular on Dog City & a couple of episodes of Sesame Street during Season 25. He also wrote a Sesame English episode, "A Zoo for Jenny." In 2006, he published his 1st young adult novel, Out of Patience, which examines such issues as baseball & toilets in small-town Kansas. In 2008, he published his 2nd, Suck It Up, a vampire comedy which contains a brief mention of his former character on Sesame Street, Elmo. Muehl, at 1 time, was a member of Mummenschanz as an interpreter for Andres Bossard.Mummenschanz Official site Muppeteer/Creature Shop Credits *''The Muppet Show: various (1980 - 1981) *John Denver & the Muppets : A Christmas Together'' *''Sesame Street: 'Barkley' (1978 - 1984), Bushman Bill, Captain Breakfast, 'Clementine' (1979 - 1984), The Cobblestones (Keyboardist), 'Elmo' (1979 - 1984), 'Grundgetta' (1982 - 1984), Honkers, 'Lothar the Grouch, '''Marvin, Malcolm, Dr . Nobel Price (1979 - 1984), Othmar the Grouch, Pearl, Rusty, Shark ("Pearl White Teeth"), Taxi Driver McGillicuddy, Telly Monster (1979 - 1984), Whatshisname *''The Great Muppet Caper'' (1981) *''The Muppets Go to the Movies'' *''The Dark Crystal: Dying Mystic Master, SkekEkt, Urzah (latter Muppeteer only) *Don't Eat the Pictures'' (1983): Telly Monster *''Surprise! (album): 'Telly Monster' *The Muppets Take Manhattan'' (1984): Tatooey Rat *''Big Bird in China'' (1984): Barkley & Telly Monster *''Big Bird in Japan'' (1989): *''The Jim Henson Hour'' (1989): "Song of the Cloud Forest" *''Dog City: Bruno *Muppet CD-ROM: The Muppets Inside'' (1996) *''The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: Binkham Tamino McDoyal the 3rd Predecessors/Successors Sources External links *Official site *Random House Author's Spotlight Special extra pictures File:Telly Monster.jpg|'Telly Monster' '''Brian Muehl' (1979 - 1984) Martin P. Robinson (1984 - present) File:Elmo.jpg|'Elmo' Brian Muehl (1980 - 1984) Kevin Clash (1984 - 2012) File:Grundgetta 1.jpg|'Grundgetta' Brian Muehl (1982 - 1984) Pam Arciero (1984 - present) File:Lothar the Grouch.jpg|'Lothar the Grouch' Brian Muehl File:Othmar the Grouch.jpg|'Othmar the Grouch' Brian Muehl See also *Muppet Performers *Muppet Puppeteers *Muppet Voice Actors *'Brian Muehl' on the Muppet Wiki *'Brian Muehl' on the Puppet Wiki *'Brian Muehl' on the Grouches Wiki Page Navigation Category:All pages Muehl, Brian Muehl, Brian Muehl, Brian